Obama Care: Americans Using Fewer Medical Services

Americans are using fewer medical services, according to a review in the Wall Street Journal, showing that the number of patient visits, drug prescriptions, and procedures were all down in the second quarter 2010, from a year ago.

This in large part is due to the fact that more Americans are buying high-deductible health plans that force them to bear more of the up-front costs. Some 18 million Americans bought high-deductible plans this year, compared with 13 million last year.

On Wednesday Aetna said usage of health-care fell in the second quarter, feeding a 42% increase in profits. WellPoint reported a 4% earnings increase, saying that hospital admissions and usage of prescription drugs had dropped compared with a year earlier. CVS said it is seeing a drop-off in new prescriptions for maintenance drugs tied to a decline in physician visits. Last week, Quest Diagnostics, a laboratory testing company, said its volume fell 2.6% in the first quarter and 1.3% in the second, partly because of decreasing physician visits.

Athenahealth Inc., which provides billing services and electronic health records for more than 1700 medical groups said last week the number of claims filed per physician, as well as the average value of the billing for each visit, had dropped from a year earlier.

Physician visits and hospital admissions are dropping this year, according to Thomson Reuters healthcare business, which surveys doctors and hospitals. Doctor visits have declined each month this year, including a 7.6 drop in May 2010 from May 2009. Hospital admissions dropped in three of the first four months of this year compared with those months last year, including being down 2.3% in April from April 2009.